Tag: Instant Coffee

Roasted Coffee Beans Give You True Flavor

Whether you’ve considered making your own roasted coffee beans or you simply want to be able to buy truly fresh beans, some simple facts about coffee can help you choose the best beans and end up with the best coffee you’ve ever had.

Coffee beans start out green. These raw beans are then roasted and ground into the coffee that most of us are familiar with. In fact, most everyone who has ever drunk coffee has experienced both an excellent and a horrible cup of coffee. Considering that you can do everything from growing your own coffee to purchasing instant coffee that only requires hot water, it’s no wonder that the quality of coffee can vary from one extreme to another.

And price really has no bearing on quality. You can pay a lot of money for brand name instant coffee that tastes worse than the cheaper ground coffee that sits next to it on the shelf. Expensive Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee might cost more than the store-brand, but if the Jamaican coffee is old and stale, the cheaper coffee will taste better. The problem with coffee you buy in a store is that you never really know how old the roasted coffee beans were when the coffee was ground, and how long ago the beans were groundboth factors that make or break the quality and flavor of coffee.

Roasted coffee beans are considered fresh for about a month, so the coffee you buy in a store should have been ground from those beans during that time. And the moment bean are ground, the coffee is fresh, but should be used immediately. Vacuum packing does retain much of the freshness, but coffee lovers know that freshly ground from bean to brew makes a better cup of coffee than freshly ground and instantly packaged, to sit on shelf for who knows how long.

If you’re purchasing whole roasted coffee beans, then the way they’re packaged will tell you something about their age. If there’s no way for CO2 to escape the package, then the beans had to sit for several days before they were packaged. If the packaging does allow for this release, then they were probably packaged immediately and will be fresher, providing you’re able to purchase them right away.

While they’re considered fresh for 30 days, true coffee fans will tell you that 3 days is the window for the best tasting coffee. After 3 days, the fresh roasted coffee beans will start to lose their aromatic oils. So for the best coffee possible, you can buy green coffee beans and roast them yourself at home.

The whole process of roasting your own beans takes less than a half an hour. Home roasting equipment lets you roast only small batchesbatches than can be easily used within 3 daysso you’re always guaranteed a fresh cup of coffee. If you choose to purchase roasted coffee beans, choose a shop that revolves around coffee so you know you’ll get quality every time.

Ingredients in Chocolate Brownies Make Your Brownies Unique

What are the ingredients in chocolate brownies, First you have the ingredients you’ll find in all chocolate brownies. Then you have the ingredients which vary from recipe to recipe , and are what make each person’s brownies unique.

Almost every chocolate brownie recipe features flour, eggs, sugar, a pinch of baking soda, a pinch of salt, butter, chocolate, and vanilla.

The ingredients in chocolate brownies that are chewy feature less flour and fewer eggs while cake brownies have more flour and eggs and need to be frosted.

Where recipes begin to be unique is in what the baker adds to them. For instance, what kind of chocolate does he or she use, Some recipes call for unsweetened chocolate bars. Others use less sugar and call for cocoa.

The add-in ingredients in chocolate brownies are also important. For instance, most brownie recipes call for some kind of nuts. Walnuts are the most common nut used. Pecans give brownies a southern twist. Macadamia nuts are less common but give the All American Brownie an exotic Polynesian taste. Chopped up shelled pistachio nuts are interesting in brownies.

Instead of putting nuts in the brownie, consider putting them on top. A praline topping for chocolate fudge brownies can be made from butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and 2 cups of pecans.

Then there’s the chocolate peanut butter brownie recipe. This involves making separate chocolate and peanut butter batters and then pouring the peanut butter concoction over the chocolate concoction in a layer. Top with chocolate frosting. Peanut butter flavor can also be added to chocolate brownies by adding peanut butter chips.

Adding 2 tablespoons of instant coffee powder to a regular chocolate brownie recipe turns them into mocha brownies. Yum! Pecans are a great addition to this recipe.

Layer 1/3 cup of shredded sweetened coconut in the brownie mix along with , teaspoon of almond extract and you have an Almond Joy Brownie recipe.

Another area where cooks can be creative is in making the frosting for brownies. Most of the time, cooks just use a basic chocolate frosting recipe. But you can get more creative.

For instance, adding peppermint extract to the butter frosting makes a great mint icing for the chocolate brownies.

Cream Cheese frosting is good year round. 4 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature mixed with , cup of sugar, one egg, and a tablespoon of flour is a popular brownie recipe.

Or, consider melting 20 or so caramel candy chews in the microwave and then drizzling the result over the chewy brownies.

Blondies are a cousin of the brownie. They follow a similar recipe but do not have any chocolate in them. Instead, they rely on brown sugar to give them their wonderful flavor.

Additions to Blondies include butterscotch chips, nuts, chocolate chips mint extract (in place of the vanilla), whiskey, bananas, and dried cherries or other dried fruit.

Brownies are typically baked in a 9×13 pan which makes about 16 servings. Brownies are a popular treat for pot lucks or family deserts. Brownies also make a great gift for housewarmings and showers.

The ingredients in chocolate brownies vary from cook to cook, but when you find your signature recipe, you will be beloved by all.